How to Start Being Stealthy by thegoldenfrog at Jan 7, 2014 5:14am

Let's cut to the chase, you need to become less visible to other players and/or zombies. You dont need your player getting shot right as you found that new gun. So here's the beginners guide to stealth. This guide is for people who are new to the game, or haven't played much.

General Movement

So this is purely for people who are new to the game. There are 3 different positions your character can be in.

Standing
- Obviously your player is completely vertical. This is the fastest way to move, but also the easiest to be seen, and to be heard.

Crouching
- Your player is hunched over and he is slower than standing, but is less visible, and is a lot less noisy.

Prone
-The slowest of all movement, would not recommend moving like this at all unless your are scouting an area out, you cannot be seen easily at all and noise is little to none, but you are soooo slow.

Movement in Cities

Roads and Small Towns
- This is the main topic because how else are you going to move around the map, but still be stealthy? Well the most basic thing to do is stay off of the roads and train tracks! Snipers and Bandits will notice you almost IMMEDIATELY! If you don't know where to go except to follow the road to the next big city, stay off a few hundred feet to the side of the road, or run just inside the treeline. It will conceal you enough, and you can still follow the road.

Medium Cities
- So when I say medium cities I mean it might have a supermarket and it wouldn't take more than 20 minutes to walk through all the houses, so not any along the south coast, more inland. These cities don't have a good chance of anyone being in them as the same time as you, but none the less you should be careful because there might be someone in/around this town. Try your best to stay crouched but if completely necessary, stand up but do it at your own risk.

Large Cities
-I'm referring mainly to Cherno and Elektro. If you're playing on a server with at least 10 people it's almost guranteed that there is someone watching watching over from the firehouse or on the outskirts of the town. You have 2 options, actually try to be sneaky and be careful, or just sprint in grab. Being sneaky is definitely safer, but to successfully go through enough houses to find some decent loot, it may take in upwards of 45 minutes. The sprint and grab will attract player and zombies both, but it wont be as easy to catch up to you or follow you. Not recommended for people who dont know how to do that.

Weapons

So there basically 2 types of weapons, guns, and melee. Within the guns, there are 3 types of them which I will go into. Overall, melee are silent, but require you to get right next to your enemy. Guns can be loud and attract zombies and players.

Melee
Ranging from your fists, to firefighter's axes. They require your player to use something to hit something else. This could be your fists, blunt objects, sharp objects etc.. You will find these almost anywhere that loot can spawn. My personal favorite and what I think is the best melee weapon is the firefighter's axe. It kills a zombie in one hit and a player in two.

Tip any melee weapon can be used to open up cans of food and such.

Guns

Short Range

Mainly pistols, they aren't effective at any distance but up to about 75 meters. You can attach sights and such to them, and since they do not fire the same caliber of rounds that more powerful guns, they aren't as loud and wont attract as many zombies. Supposedly there are shotguns in the standalone because you can collect the ammo, but I have not encountered any in my 100+ hours in the game.

Medium Range

These consist of assault rifles mostly. The most common of which, is the M4. The M4 comes with the standard iron sights, butt stock, and handle, but no magazines or ammo, you will need to get these later. The easiest way to be more stealthy with these is have a silencer, you will not find these around the gun usually. It works like a real life silencer in that it doesn't actually make it "silent". Depending on how damaged it is, you will still here a distinctive pop every time you pull the trigger, but it will be considerably less noisy than it first was.

Long Range

SNIPERS!! Possibly the best weapon to have (when accompanied with a pistol) The main one I've heard of is the Mousin. 1 shot 1 kill. How to be stealthy when sniping? Stay on the outskirts of a town near a tree line. You must keep in mind that there is bullet travel time so lead your shots and set the zeroing distance based on judgement but I've found its not too important, leading your target is more important.

So I know I just covered the real basics of stealth but thats what this was for, I wasn't trying to teach you how to achieve a ghost status. Hopefully it was helpful none the less, have a great day!

Zeroing correctly when sniping is indeed very important, othwerways the shot will end up too high or too low and you'll miss the target.

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By YeBittenDog on 2014/01/13 at 3:20pm

Thanks for the guide. Great job.

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By Greengreengene on 2014/02/13 at 8:08pm

Not every melee weapon can open cans of food.

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By CakeDayZ on 2014/02/19 at 10:46am

Crowbar cant open canned goods for some reason...

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By CakeDayZ on 2014/02/19 at 10:46am

Crowbar cant open canned goods for some reason...

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By Jerm on 2014/03/04 at 7:37am

I found a double barrel shotgun in the Rify abandon ship bridge 3/3/14. So they are in fact in the game.

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By skorpion01 on 2014/03/13 at 6:55pm

there are shotguns in the game, you can also make it a sawed off shotgun using the hacksaw on it. this way you can store it in your bag or on your back but hardly noticeable from a distance

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By H3R0 on 2014/03/25 at 9:28am

Great guide man.

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By BamWolfe on 2014/04/24 at 7:53am

What is ghost Status?

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By CPLMortonRA on 2014/04/27 at 5:49pm

This is going to sound totally dick and I'm sorry in advance but an actual "silencer" is not a silencer at all, it is called a suppressor and its primary function is to eliminate muzzle flash. I speak from real life experience and yes I understand that it is a game. The noise emitted from a suppressed M-16 or M-4 is still pretty darn loud and can be heard at least 200 meters away. Every game I've ever played has this wrong and I thought that I would share some real life experience. Other than that the guide for newer players is great! Another tip for newer players is Observation. Look for those opened doors as you approach an area, it is a good indicator of either someone is there or has been there. Now for the stealthy part. If you want to attain a "Ghost" status always close the doors you've opened to make it appear that no one has been there, that includes interior doors. NEVER follow roads. stay at least 100meters when following a road. I recommend that you find a Compass and learn the map. I haven't traveled near any roads in a long time. Study the map or print one out to use for reference. Use land marks. I consistently run from the mil base near pavlovo to NWAF then NEAF using nothing but landmarks and NEVER going near any roads. Always be observing your surroundings, if your not checking your six every 5 seconds that other sneaky player might get a jump on you. Lastly play on hardcore servers. I cannot tell you how many times I have been able to sneak up to players because they cant abuse 3PP and forget to look around. The best advice I can give about being Stealthy is to make it appear that you don't exist and or you've never been there, It's kind of like having OCD except that if you screw up it can cost you your life. Great starter guide hope my bit helps and again sorry for the correct on the "Silencer" "suppressor" thing.

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By Bravo343 on 2014/06/02 at 6:58pm

CPLMorton , thank you for the supressor corrections , i too , noticed that , and most of your suggestions are very helpful , especaily to newer players , and i also happened to notice , that most of that is basic survival training , the compass , map , and landmarks , im guessing that is where your name came from ?? ( forgive me Im from a military family , all of this is all too familiar)

~Bravo343

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By Bravo343 on 2014/06/02 at 7:05pm

Bamwolfe , ghost status refers too your ability to "go ghost" , and be almost invisible , shutting doors , leaving some lesser things , some pristine that you might want but already have , making it generally seem like you have never existed , but in reality , you were there , took good stuff (hopefully) and only you and your team know about it , also , it may be harder , but teams are the way to roll , i run with 5 others (im not disclosing more , for i might give away info on our names and gear ) but i can tell you we ALWAYS "go ghost" 200m away from towns , and setup 400m (aprox) near military spawn (NWAF, NEAF) and NEVER search building alone , or leave ourselves unguarded , someones ALWAYS watching the door we shut, that sort of thing , and if all of us are on , we have snipers around , just a suggestion , but that has gotten us through stuff , while still going ghost , (5v10, or 5v20) that would not normally happen , so even squads can go ghost , in some cases kill lots of people , and yet remain undected

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By CPLMortonRA on 2014/06/08 at 10:39am

@ Bravo343 You sir are 100% correct on the background referencing my name. I spent time as an 0311 (infantry) in the USMC with 2 deployments to the sandbox. I thought I would share the very basics of the tactics that I use when playing solo or with friends. All I can give folks are the tools for success it is up to them on weather or not they wish to utilize and grow their skills for hand holding is the quick route to failure. If you do what everyone else on youtube does then you will always be surprised or killed from freethinking players like me. The absolute best training you can receive weather it be real life or simulated is when someone gives you the tools and you put them to use in your own unique way. Cheers Bravo343 and thanks for the reply!

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By LthLDawG on 2014/06/24 at 1:35am

I'm surprised no one put in addition to talk about dead ground and the six S's and M for concealment. Shape Shine Shadow Silhouette Surface Spacing Movement (while some of these are out of our control in the video game a majority still apply) , whilst moving or even stationary think about what is around you, what you are wearing where the light is what you are up against and how you choose to move (between buildings/foliage or with your squad). Its one thing to be "in" cover... Protected from certain angles but also blind sighted your self from that direction, its essentially putting your back up against a wall or resorting to a head on firefight and I don't like not having multiple options to escape/explore when situations start to occur. However being concealed but still having full 360 observation ability while keeping an eye on potential threats and checking your six is a much better position to be in prior to a firefight, and with enough Time to OODA (Observer orientate decide then act) you can choose to engage when in a favorable position hopefully resulting in a clean kill/s with out a skirmish.

The times ive also used dead ground to break line of sight, flank and even walk right up in front of my opposition with out them being aware is unreal. Esp at the NEAF northside of the strip, that gully is amazing terrain to utilize. Its playing solo that these skills really pay off, Once you start using these tools to your advantage and you make them habit you really start to ghost.